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Notion Configuration for AudioLab

Purpose

Guide for setting up Notion workspace as a collaborative knowledge management platform for AudioLab development.

Why Notion?

Advantages: - Rich formatting (databases, kanban, calendars) - Real-time collaboration - Great mobile app - Integrations (GitHub, Slack, etc.) - Templates and reusable blocks

Disadvantages: - Not open source - Requires account - Limited offline access - Vendor lock-in

Workspace Structure

📁 AudioLab Workspace
│
├── 🏠 Home
│   ├── Quick Links
│   ├── Recent Updates
│   └── Team Directory
│
├── 📋 Project Management
│   ├── Roadmap (Timeline)
│   ├── Sprint Planning (Kanban)
│   ├── Task Database
│   └── Release Tracker
│
├── 📚 Knowledge Base
│   ├── Architecture Decisions (Database)
│   ├── How-To Guides
│   ├── Research Notes
│   └── Meeting Notes
│
├── 🛠️ Development
│   ├── Setup Guides
│   ├── Troubleshooting
│   ├── Code Reviews
│   └── Performance Benchmarks
│
└── 🎓 Resources
    ├── DSP References
    ├── Learning Materials
    ├── Tools & Libraries
    └── External Links

Database Templates

1. Architecture Decision Records (ADR)

Properties: - Title (Text) - Status (Select: Draft, Proposed, Accepted, Deprecated) - Date (Date) - Author (Person) - Tags (Multi-select: architecture, performance, realtime) - Impact (Select: High, Medium, Low)

Template Content: 

## Context
[What problem are we solving?]

## Decision
[What did we decide?]

## Consequences
**Positive:**
-

**Negative:**
-

## Alternatives
-

## Implementation Notes

2. Task Database

Properties: - Task Name (Title) - Status (Select: Not Started, In Progress, In Review, Done) - Priority (Select: P0, P1, P2, P3) - Assignee (Person) - Due Date (Date) - Epic (Relation to Epics database) - Tags (Multi-select) - Estimate (Number - hours)

Views: - Kanban: Group by Status - Calendar: By Due Date - Table: All properties - My Tasks: Filter by current user

3. Meeting Notes

Properties: - Meeting Title (Title) - Date (Date) - Attendees (Multi-person) - Type (Select: Planning, Retrospective, Technical, Sync) - Action Items (Relation to Task Database)

Template Content: 

## Agenda
1.
2.
3.

## Notes
### Topic 1
[Discussion notes]

### Topic 2
[Discussion notes]

## Decisions
-

## Action Items
- [ ] Task 1 (assigned to @user, due 2025-01-20)
- [ ] Task 2

## Next Meeting
Date:
Topics:

4. Research Database

Properties: - Research Topic (Title) - Status (Select: Planning, In Progress, Complete, Archived) - Researcher (Person) - Started (Date) - Completed (Date) - Category (Select: DSP, Performance, Architecture, UI) - References (URL)

Template Content: 

## Goal
[What are we researching?]

## Hypothesis
[What do we expect to find?]

## Methodology
[How will we test this?]

## Results
[Findings]

## Conclusion
[What did we learn?]

## Next Steps

Integration with GitHub

GitHub Integration

  1. Install Notion GitHub integration
  2. Connect to AudioLab repository
  3. Embed issues and PRs in Notion pages

Create relation database: 

Issues & PRs Database
├── Title (from GitHub)
├── Number (#123)
├── Status (Open, Closed)
├── Labels (Multi-select)
├── Assigned (Person)
└── Link (URL to GitHub)

Sync Strategy

  • Tasks: Create in Notion → Convert to GitHub Issue
  • ADRs: Draft in Notion → Move to repo as markdown
  • Meeting Notes: Keep in Notion (collaborative editing)

Collaboration Features

Permissions

  • Team: Can edit all pages
  • Contributors: Can edit development pages
  • Guests: Read-only access to select pages

Comments and Mentions

@username what do you think about this approach?

Discussed in meeting:
@user1 @user2 agreed on lock-free queue implementation

Page History

  • View all revisions
  • Restore previous versions
  • Compare changes

Templates

Create Page Templates

For common page types:

1. How-To Guide Template 

# How to [Task]

## Prerequisites
-
-

## Steps
### 1. [First Step]
[Instructions]

### 2. [Second Step]
[Instructions]

## Troubleshooting
**Issue:**
**Solution:**

## See Also
- [[Related Page]]

2. Weekly Update Template 

# Week of [Date]

## Completed
- ✅ Task 1
- ✅ Task 2

## In Progress
- 🔄 Task 3
- 🔄 Task 4

## Blocked
- 🚫 Task 5 (waiting for...)

## Next Week
- Task 6
- Task 7

Best Practices

Naming Conventions

  • Pages: Use clear, descriptive titles
  • Databases: Use noun plural (Tasks, Meetings, ADRs)
  • Tags: Use lowercase, hyphenated (real-time, audio-io)

Organization

  • Use emojis for visual scanning 📁 🔧 📊
  • Create TOC (table of contents) for long pages
  • Use callouts for important info
  • Link liberally between related pages

Maintenance

  • Archive completed tasks quarterly
  • Review and update key pages monthly
  • Delete truly obsolete content
  • Keep page tree shallow (max 3 levels)

Export and Backup

Regular Backups

Settings → Export Content → Export All Workspace Content
Format: Markdown & CSV
Frequency: Weekly

Version Control

For critical docs (ADRs, architecture): 1. Write in Notion (collaborative editing) 2. Export to markdown 3. Commit to git repo 4. Link Notion page to git version

Search Optimization

Use Keywords

Include synonyms and common terms: 

# Parameter Smoothing
*Also known as: parameter interpolation, value ramping*

Tag Liberally

Apply multiple relevant tags to increase discoverability

Create Index Pages

Main index page with links to all major sections

Mobile Usage

Optimized for Mobile

  • Keep paragraphs short
  • Use checklists (tap to complete)
  • Add voice memos (mobile app)
  • Quick capture with Notion Web Clipper

Advanced Features

Formulas

Calculate days until deadline: 

dateBetween(prop("Due Date"), now(), "days")

Rollups

Count tasks per epic: 

Rollup: Tasks → Count All

Relations

Link tasks to: - Epic - ADR - Meeting Notes - Research

Automation (Notion AI)

  • Summarize meeting notes
  • Generate action items
  • Draft documentation
  • Translate content

Notion API

Programmatic Access

# Example: Fetch ADRs from Notion
import requests

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {NOTION_TOKEN}",
    "Notion-Version": "2022-06-28"
}

database_id = "YOUR_ADR_DATABASE_ID"
url = f"https://api.notion.com/v1/databases/{database_id}/query"

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers)
adrs = response.json()

Use Cases

  • Export ADRs to markdown for git
  • Sync tasks with GitHub Issues
  • Generate reports
  • Auto-populate databases

Migration from Other Tools

From Confluence

  1. Export Confluence space as HTML
  2. Use Notion import tool
  3. Clean up formatting
  4. Reorganize structure

From GitHub Wiki

  1. Clone wiki repo
  2. Import markdown files to Notion
  3. Convert to Notion format
  4. Add metadata (tags, dates)

Support and Resources

References